Motorola copied iPhone X for its new P30? So have other Android phones

Motorola's new phone, P30, is drawing everyone's attention -- not for its unique features but design that is heavily inspired by Apple's iPhone X. While the front has an iPhone X-like notch, the rear panel resembles Apple's $1,000 phone.

The rear panel of Motorola P30 also looks very similar to Huawei's P20 smartphone. Both the phones share colourful reflective panels that change colours in different lighting conditions. Motorola describes the back design as "aurora." Motorola's P30 has been launched in China and is expected to be rolled out in other markets.

As said earlier, Motorola's iPhone X-inspired P30 is drawing flak for an unimaginative design. The Verge in its report says Motorola's new phone "looks exactly like an iPhone with a Huawei paint job." Google's image search guessed the P30 as an iPhone X.

Mashable calls Motorola P30 as "the most ridiculous iPhone X copy" and also criticised the phone for iPhone X-inspired wallpaper. CNET says the phone is an "iPhone X with a glamorous splash of color."

Apart from an iPhone X like design, Motorola P30 is pretty much a standard mid-range Android smartphone. Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, the phone has a 19:9 display. On the software side, it runs on Android 8 Oreo out-of-the-box. The phone has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of built-in storage. Motorola P30 has a dual-rear camera setup featuring 16- and 5-megapixel f1.8 sensors with support bokeh mode. It has a 12-megapixel front camera.

Not just Motorola
P30 may be Motorola's first phone with the notch but the company isn't alone in copying Apple iPhone X notch design. From Vivo, Oppo to OnePlus, all major Android players have copied Apple iPhone X design. For instance, OnePlus' latest OnePlus 6 also comes with an iPhone X notch design.

"Maybe not as fast. But we have access to the roadmaps of all the screen manufacturers, and when they gave us the opportunity to make cutouts at the top of the screen, it just made sense," OnePlus' founder Carl Pei told The Verge ahead of the OnePlus 6 launch and decision to include the notch now.

Vivo X21 which launched in March this year came with unique under-screen fingerprint sensor technology but also donned the notch.

Asus earlier this year introduced its premium Zenfone 5 and Zenfone 5Z with an iPhone X-like front.

"The Zenfone 5 and 5Z are 'following a trend of' of having a notch display that provides the maximum possible amount of screen area by providing a small notch of bay the LED indicator, speaker, sensors and front camera. This display allows us to put a 6.2-inch panel into the body of a 5.5-inch smartphone. We are among the first android smartphones to have a notch display. With the new design from Asus the size of the notch has been further narrowed as compared to erstwhile implementation by others," Dinesh Sharma, Director Mobile Product Center for Asus India explained.

The trend of Android phones copying iPhone X design is going to stay. According to a Counterpoint Research report earlier this year said around 300 million smartphones, roughly 19% of the total devices to be sold in 2018 globally, will come with a notch display.

"Android smartphones will contribute to 55% of such devices and most of the tier-one Android Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) will embrace 'notch displays' in their flagships first," the report added.

Google is also extending support to notch displays with its Android Pie.